@tabbott: "I just heard a gasoline trader on CNBC say that every 10 cent decline
in the price of gasoline puts an additional one billion dollars in
consumers' pockets.
The price of oil has dropped from $97 per barrel to $82 per barrel
over the last couple of weeks, so gasoline prices should drop which
will be good for the U.S. economy.
In a previous post, I suggested that one way to stimulate the U.S.
economy was to eliminate, at least temporarily, the federal and state
gasoline taxes, which I quoted as equaling about $0.80 per gallon, and
this would rapidly stimulate the U.S. economy as people had more money
in their pockets to spend on things other than gasoline.
The $0.80 figure I quoted was incorrect.  The federal and state taxes
are closer to $0.50 per gallon.
If the gasoline trader's figure was correct, then eliminating the
federal and state gasoline taxes would result in continuosly pumping
$5 billion extra dollars into the U.S. economy, for as long as the
taxes are eliminated, and would start as soon as the tax was no longer
collected.
President Obama suggested more payroll tax holidays (don't those taxes
go to pay for Social Security and Medicare?) as a way of getting money
into consumers' pockets quickly.  That will work (I guess we'll deal
with Social Security and Medicare later), and will provide a quick
stimulus.
Eliminating the gasoline tax will also have an immediate beneficial
effect on the U.S. economy, and would put more money into Americans
pocket than even the payroll tax holiday.
Cheap gasoline is what drives the U.S. economy.  That should be one of
our main goals.  Unfortunately, President Obama and his administration
refuse to promote any kind of hydrocarbon development.  This policy
will eventually result in his election loss, which is a good thing,
but in the meantime, his neglect and even opposition to hydrocarbons
is doing serious harm to the U.S. economy.
If you want a booming U.S. economy, find a way to supply it with
cheaper fuels.  It's as simple as that.
TA"
    @jesus475073: "Remember Obamy opened drilling to lower prices for election and wants to
add $1. dollar per gallon tax on gas.  He's just opened the door to slip
in the tax.  Lower prices are only temporary, the next time gas goes to
$4. dollars it may windup $5.
I still see way to many gas guzzling suv's on the roads and no super mpg
cars in thomasgeorge@example.com.  The Smart Car USA only gets 40mpg, in Germany
it gets 80MPG!
Various City Cars In Europe average 61.4 MPG!!!  These ARE NOT
HYBRIDS!!!  Someone is actively brocking high MPG Cars from the USA
Market!  The TATA in India gets 95MPG! and sells for around $2,000.
dollars! seats 4 people.  Compare that to the $11,000. dollar Smart Car
that only seats 2 with 1/2 the mpg.  WE DON'T HAVE AN ENERGY PROBLEM, WE
HAVE A POLITICAL PROBLEM!"
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